


Destructive Interference

by choomchoom



Series: Destructive Interference (prowlrod spec ops au) [2]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, i've fallen into prowlrod hell and i can't get up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22473346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom
Summary: Prowl and Hot Rod are both bad at taking care of themselves, but conveniently, they can fill in the gaps for each other.
Relationships: Hot Rod/Prowl
Series: Destructive Interference (prowlrod spec ops au) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616956
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	Destructive Interference

**Author's Note:**

> 'Destructive interference: the occasion where two waves completely cancel each other out. Waves that interfere destructively must have the same amplitude in opposite directions.'
> 
> ~
> 
> This is roughly 90% MagicalSpaceDragon's fault and 10% the fault of my feral prowlrod hindbrain which has apparently always existed

Hot Rod knocked on the door of Prowl’s office and wasn’t surprised to hear “Come in” from inside. He would have _hoped_ that Prowl was using his off-shift time to relax or recharge, but he knew Prowl well enough by now to know better.

He entered the room and felt himself relaxing a bit at the familiar chaos. There were datapads stacked in several piles on the chair across from the desk, and the desk itself was piled high enough that Prowl had to straighten his posture to make optic contact with Hot Rod.

“What are you doing here?”

“Let’s start over. I’ll be you,” Hot Rod said. He pitched his voice low. “Hi. Welcome back.”

“Hi. Welcome back,” Prowl repeated. Hot Rod wrapped his arms around Prowl’s neck and Prowl turned his helm around to kiss him. “Mm. I meant that you should be recharging. I’m sure you had a long few days.”

“I’ll recharge later. I wanted to see you.” Hot Rod stroked his hands along Prowl’s shoulders, feeling Prowl relax beneath him almost immediately. “And I have a sneaking suspicion that you haven’t recharged since I left either.”

“We’re maintaining offensives in three systems,” Prowl said. Hot Rod watched him make an edit to a budget request and then sign off on it before moving on to the next one. “Two of them are uncomfortably close to having below a fifty-percent chance of success. I’ll recharge when it makes _sense_ to.”

“If you keep exhausting yourself like this you won’t be able to help with any of them,” Hot Rod said. He slipped his fingers into tense seams in Prowl’s back. Prowl’s head turned toward him, just slightly, before refocusing on the datapad in front of him.

“I’ll just let the Decepticons know that they need to take a quick break from the total annihilation of all the organics in the universe so that I can get some rest,” Prowl said. Hot Rod pressed his fingers deeper, massaging cables, and Prowl sighed. “At least sit down, if you’re going to be in here.”

Hot Rod ducked under one of Prowl’s arms as he was reaching for the next datapad and climbed into his lap, resting his head on Prowl’s shoulder and wrapping his arms loosely around him. He wouldn’t admit it, but it did feel nice to be off his feet.

Prowl kept on with his work, but one of his arms moved to secure Hot Rod in place. Hot Rod relaxed for the first time in days to the familiar hum of Prowl’s EM field and the quiet rumbling of his engine.

**

Prowl felt Hot Rod’s frame relax against his, and finally admitted defeat when he was certain Hot Rod was fully in recharge. He set his datapad down and dashed off notes to a few commanders that he’d be behind schedule with his next set of updates, then he turned his attention fully to Hot Rod.

The sight of Hot Rod in recharge never failed to fill Prowl with a combination of awe and fear. His optics were dark and his mouth slack, expression soft and relaxed in a way it never was in wakefulness. He was constantly either talking or performing some emotion, as if he couldn’t turn it off. Prowl didn’t think he would ever stop being amazed at the fact that he was the one Hot Rod trusted to see him like this, or stop being terrified that Hot Rod was ever this vulnerable.

He noted a series of scorch marks on Hot Rod’s chest and some scours in the paint on his arm where it looked like dents had been popped back into place by a medic. By Hot Rod himself, more likely, knowing him. That was the extent of the damage Prowl could see, but he could tell from Hot Rod’s gait and the noises of his frame walking in here that he hadn’t been badly injured.

Hot Rod was deep enough in recharge that Prowl didn’t worry about resting his own helm on top of Hot Rod’s, just briefly. He offlined his optics and noticed that, unsurprisingly, Hot Rod had been correct. He was tired.

He wasn’t about to let Hot Rod wake up and gloat about it, though, so he was careful as he eased both of them out of the chair, cradling Hot Rod’s frame against his. Hot Rod’s quarters were closer than Prowl’s, just one level up from the offices, and the chances that anyone would be in the hallways right now, in the middle of theta shift, were low. Hot Rod didn’t wake up as Prowl exited the office, walked down the hallway, took the elevator to the correct level, and used Hot Rod’s code to unlock his door.

Hot Rod started to shift as Prowl tried to ease him down onto the berth, his optics blinking sleepily back online at half power. “You’re staying, right?” he asked, his vocalizer staticky with recharge, as Prowl set him gently down.

“I’m staying.”

Hot Rod had kept a grip on Prowl’s wrist, and he tugged on it as he moved over to make room for Prowl on the berth. Prowl allowed himself to be pulled down next to Hot Rod, and was glad that Hot Rod had promptly buried his face in Prowl’s chest, because Prowl was sure the smile on his faceplate at the way Hot Rod wrapped himself around Prowl to keep him in place was…unbecoming.

Prowl was ready to get some sleep, except… “What happened here?” He reached up to trace a laceration on Hot Rod’s back, which looked like it was starting to heal but was deep enough that Hot Rod was lucky it wasn’t infected.

“Shrapnel, I think,” Hot Rod said. “It’s not too bad.”

“Sit up. I’m putting a nannite patch on that,” Prowl said.

Hot Rod groaned and didn’t sit up until Prowl gently pushed him off by sitting up himself. He reached for the medkit that he knew Hot Rod kept under the berth, keeping one hand on Hot Rod’s hip to hold him in place.

“You know that you can ask me, if you need my help with something like this,” Prowl said. He could tell that the only reason Hot Rod hadn’t patched it himself was that it wasn’t at an angle he could reach.

“You were busy,” Hot Rod replied, and, well, that was a fair enough argument that Prowl probably ought to just drop it and modify his behavior in the future.

He placed the patch quickly, and on impulse he pressed his lips to Hot Rod’s plating, just above the cut. “I’m glad you made it back here safely.”

“I always do,” Hot Rod said, his usual bravado muted in the dim and quiet of his quarters. Prowl nodded to acknowledge it, letting his helm rub against the plating on Hot Rod’s back.

 _I always do_ didn’t necessarily mean _I always will_ , but Prowl knew that Hot Rod already knew that, and he was too tired to have that argument again anyway. Better to pull Hot Rod back down onto the berth with him, to sleepily plug each other into their recharge cables, to wrap his arms around Hot Rod as he felt him, again, relax into recharge, Prowl close behind.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first bit i wrote for this little series - more coming soon! this isn't the first chronologically but i felt like it was an important first glimpse into this AU & relationship


End file.
